During Argentina’s “Dirty War,” people thought to be enemies of the state were bundled into Ford Falcons without license plates and disappeared. Would the “war” have been less dirty if the Roman Catholic church had stood up to its perpetrators? Read more…

Torture, at least, is not usually fatal. Done out of sight, its true extent remains a dirty little secret. Drone strikes are exponentially different. Their very principle redefines America for a world that once expected something better. Read more…

I live in two countries, have worked in just about all the rest and have had weapons drawn on me by child soldiers, terrorists and bandits. In none of those circumstances would being armed have increased my chances of being here today.Read more…

Fishtocrats from three dozen nations just met in Manila to protect imperiled Pacific tuna, but they barely budged the status quo. You had better develop a taste for tofu tartar and seaweed sushi.Read more…

Mort RosenblumAngel Mozos Ramirez, a fish and seafood wholesaler, at the Mercado de San Antón in Madrid.

How can fish and seafood be scarce if they’re there in the market when you want them? But in every ocean, rapacious trawlers, purse seiners and longliners are overfishing to an alarming degree. Read more…

Lester Brown, who has long been tracking how much grain the world grows, figures the global cupboard has a 77-day supply, only half the amount of a good year. Food supply, as he has warned, also serves as a kind of barometer for social unrest.Read more…

Is it the essential oil? Well, the dove that advised Noah he could finally park the Ark carried with it an olive sprig. Olive oil lit the lamp that miraculously burned for eight days, which Jews celebrate at Hanukkah. And the first Olympic competitors wore only a coating of it.Read more…